Obituary : Dr Abdul Rahman
Dr M. R. Rajagopal, Chairman of Pallium India, writes:
The year was 1994 or 1995. I was taking a train from Mangalore to Calicut. The handsome man sitting opposite me struck up a conversation. He was Dr Abdul Rahman, General Medicine doctor from Manjeri.
When I introduced myself, he expressed enthusiasm. He said he had heard about our pioneering palliative care work in Calicut, which by then was only a year or two old.
“Will you start a branch in Manjeri?” he asked. “We will find you the space.”
I said we could do better than that. We could help him and colleagues to start their own palliative care unit.
True to his nature, things moved fast. Mr Majeed, Pharmacist, was to take the lead. Dr Abbas was sent to us for training. Pretty soon, the first satellite clinic to be started out of Calicut was in operation. It grew from strength to strength. Thereafter Dr Abdul Rahman had been involved in several major activities, all of significant social impact.
I think of him as the essence of goodness. My colleagues and I are privileged that people like him walked on this earth and showed the way for a lot of us. And now he has gone. He will live in my memory as the incarnation of integrity.
Rest in Peace, Dr Abdul Rahman.
I am so saddened to hear about this. I met Dr. Rahman in 2010 during very early stages of my dissertation work. He recounted this train counter with you Dr. Rajagopal, the early days of work with the Kozhikode team and at Manjeri. He was wonderfully patient with his time (end of a long OP day), and his inputs deeply influenced and shaped my work. I had always wanted to meet him again with a published copy of my account and thank him. That is a debt I will carry.